You've Got to Be Carefully Taught
by royal-chandler
Summary: The first time Tate saw Adriana he did not hate her. What changed? Or what lesson did he miss? Warning: Not for the easily offended.


Disclaimer: One Life to Live does not belong to me. No copyright infringement intended. The song, "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" belongs to Rogers and Hammerstein.

A/N: This story is NOT for the easily offended. It deals with the racist/OPP storyline on One Life to Live. If you're not a fan of the storyline please do not read.

**You've Got to Be Carefully Taught**

_You've got to be taught to hate and fear._

_You've got to be taught from year to year._

_It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear._

_You've got to be carefully taught._

There was no escaping it, the hate, anger and destruction. However there was no escaping her. God help me or I am damned. I hate her, absolutely loathe her. The night after the bombing of the hospital I had taken three cracks across the back for consoling her, one for betrayal, two for irresponsibility and three for mixing with "them." There was to be no care for the animals. I would never console her again—at least not in front of spectators. Adriana is slowly stripping me away from all I had learned. I don't want to be unraveled, I don't want her tanned hands on me but yet I yearn for it. Her skin always burns mine. She's tantalizing and she has no idea as to how toxic she is. We would be out and she'd let her fingers mingle with my own, when realization would strike her she'd blush and take it back. Like she was committing some sort of sin…her, the former Catholic school girl. Yes, she has told me all about the nuns and the silent treatments she would get for—what did she call it? Being naughty. Playfully, I had stuck my tongue out at the implication. Oh the disaster a beauty could cause.

_You've got to be taught to be afraid of people,_

_Whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a different shade._

_You've got to be carefully taught._

Dark bole is that color of her eyes, eyes that shine more beautiful than any azul ever could. Why did she have to be so different and impure? Why can't I have her any other way? The other day we had been watching a movie, Titanic. It's her favorite but I think it's not so great. Anyways I had almost blown my cover. A middle-eastern family was in the movie and they couldn't read English. What was my comment? "Fucking morons." No matter how soft the whisper she had heard me. She looked at me strangely, her beautiful face wrecked with confusion. I stuttered at lost to find my words. Answer me this, was it because I needed to cover up quickly or was it the scent of her perfume when she had turned her head to lock eyes with me? "Rose and Jack," I'm an expert. "should have helped them out."

She smiled and pecked me on my cheek. Her lips were so soft. It felt so right. The soft petals haunted me for the rest of the night. She had fallen asleep in my laps as the credits rolled. Her black hair fanned out across my thighs, it looked like onyx silk and smelled of pineapples, the good kind.

_You've got to be taught before it's too late_

_Before you are six or seven or eight_

_To hate all the people your relatives hate_

_You've got to be carefully taught._

My father is nothing like me, he doesn't believe in what I believe. He regrets the day I left him when I was 13 yrs. old. I want to shout in between the bars of his holding cell, "Take me back there! I'm alone and lost!"

But then the hand of my leader gives me a good one across the face and shoves the medallion into my hand to wake me from my dreams. I could always argue that she isn't fully Hispanic but none of my friends would hear it. If it were them in my position—you don't want to know.

She's decent; I get that because I never really learned. They never warned me about her. Her who whimpers in her sleep because she has nightmares about a father she's never met. Her who likes to invite me to play Go Fish and possesses a pout I couldn't resist in a million years. I'm a racist. I hate people who are different from me. But I want her. Why can't I have one? No woman compares and none ever will. So here's my solution:

I will kill Adriana Cramer to save myself from losing. With her gone there's no gray between black and white. Once it's again it's me and them and my lesson is reinstated.

_You've got to be carefully taught._


End file.
